will the real wizard of oz please stand up
David Brooks is one of those opinion writers who is hit or miss for me. There have been recent columns when he really nails it, yet on so many others he crashed and burned miserably, caught in the contradictory tornado of the pseudo-conservative policy ideas that have polluted the republican party for much of its recent past.
Brooks' latest effort dissects the myth of "conservative" talking heads controlling the republican party, showing just how shallow that "control" truly is based on the last election cycle. Though his column was pretty much a home-run with regards to timing and appropriateness given the story on the TPM frontpage, I still think he missed the essential dilemma for today's republicans - a total leadership vacuum across all levels of the national and local party apparatus combined with declining voter involvement, giving the Limbots the ability to wave the biggest stick in the first place and position their crazy as the default message for the party.
When the republican caucus and far-right shock jocks offer endless objections rather than even mediocre solutions, the underlying strategy begins to look a lot like obstruction.
Brooks' latest effort dissects the myth of "conservative" talking heads controlling the republican party, showing just how shallow that "control" truly is based on the last election cycle. Though his column was pretty much a home-run with regards to timing and appropriateness given the story on the TPM frontpage, I still think he missed the essential dilemma for today's republicans - a total leadership vacuum across all levels of the national and local party apparatus combined with declining voter involvement, giving the Limbots the ability to wave the biggest stick in the first place and position their crazy as the default message for the party.
When the republican caucus and far-right shock jocks offer endless objections rather than even mediocre solutions, the underlying strategy begins to look a lot like obstruction.
